Lesson 623
Summary The Yorozuya, Jirochou and Pirako fight through the attacking Shinra. Otose, Catherine and some of the armed Kabuki-chou men walk across the rooftops at the same time. Otose watches the five on the ground, amused in the irony of how Jirochou was fighting with the youngsters despite saying that they should let the new generation handle this. But she admits he was always like this, thinking back to their youth, where she always sees him involved in fights and tending to his wounds. She suspected that he was introducing himself with his fists even at the moment when he first met Tatsugorou. The two men met after Jirochou and some of his men found a group of thugs beaten up near the tea shop young Otose worked. The man responsible, Tatsugorou, recognizes Jirochou as the Kabuki district's protector even though he was a yakuza but chastises him for failing to discipline his men. Otose, then Ayano, corrected him by insisting that the men the cop beaten up weren't part of Jirochou's yakuza group but just thugs using his name. Jirochou had wanted to beat up the same men but decided to brawl with Tatsugorou. Ayano watched as their first fight resulted in them becoming friends and understood that the two used their fights to speak and understand each other. For a while the duo worked to protect the district together. One day, while standing on the river bank, Tatsugorou and Jirochou talk about Ayano's dream of opening a shop where people from all walks of life can enter and drink together and Tatsugorou accuses Jirochou of secretly helping her, though the dark-skinned thug denies it. The cop was suddenly punched before suggesting that Jirochou and Ayano get together; Jirochou berated Tatsugorou for not deciding to get together with the woman himself. Aware of each other's feelings for Ayano but wishing to let the other have her, they fight to see the loser winning her hand. Ultimately, Jirochou wins, as he realized that Ayano had feeling for Tatsugorou; he walks away past the gathered crowd and Ayano, asking her if he was still invited to the bar even after hurting the man who loves the owner. She still agrees. As Jirochou's life went by, Otose notes that even through constant clashes, Jirochou, along with the people he encountered, have grown strong through their bonds and that ultimately, these fights had strengthened and evolved the district into being an impenetrable "steel city". In the present, the five enter the ground floor of a building through the windows, forcing the Shinra to enter after them one at a time in each window. The five mow them down one by one. Sotatsu mocks them for believing that this will hinder his men and the teens see that the soldiers they killed purposely hold them in place, allowing their brethren to use them as stepping stones to enter the building and attack the teens. Gintoki and Jirochou bring a large piece of the building's pipe down on them and tells the kids to flee. The assassins now enter unheeded and a few begin to chase down the kids through the corridor, just to find themselves killed by Gintoki and Jirochou, who hid themselves near the corners. Sotatsu again mocks them for believing that their plan to limit the Shinra's mobility and signature group tactics will succeed. He even taunts the two men by saying that fighting them in the building actually helped the Amanto as they had entered every corner of the building. At the same time, the teens find their path blocked by more Shinra. He orders his men to attack and they do so from all sides. That is until the Shinra from the same corridor are immediately killed by the Shinra arriving from the front and are being pushed back. These "Shinra" were Katsuo and the Yakuza in disguise and Katsuo calls to his former boss to go for the attack and Jirochou do so. Characters * Doromizu Jirochou * Sakata Gintoki * Shimura Shinpachi * Kagura * Chin Pirako * Otose * Catherine * Shinra Tribe ** Sotatsu * Terada Tatsugorou (flashback) * Kurogoma Katsuo (cameo) Category:Chapters